Parcae (Gr. Molpai), Or Fates, in Grecian and Roman mythology, daughters of Erebus and Night or of Jupiter and Themis. They had control over the universe, and particularly human destinies, presided over all great events in the lives of men, executed the decrees of nature, and punished criminals through their ministers the Furies, whose sisters they were sometimes said to be. In Homer Molpa is fate personified, and is almost invariably mentioned in the singular; but Hesiod describes three fates: Clotho or the spinner, who spun out the thread of human life; Lachesis, the disposer of destinies, who twirled the spindle while Clotho held the distaff; and Atropos the inevitable, who cut the thread when it had reached its proper length. They are sometimes regarded simply as the goddesses of the duration of human life, in which case they are but two, one presiding over birth and the other over death. They were described by the poets as hideous, stern, and cruel old women. They had shrines in many parts of Greece.